The Swazi Observer, a newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati,
sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, has been running numerous reports
supporting Incwala. It quoted Swazi Deputy Prime Minister Paul Dlamini on Tuesday
(29 December 2015) saying, ‘Incwala just unites us as Swazis where we get to be
together in one place and dance. This is also a way in which children are
taught about life.

‘So this must be
preserved as it has helped so many people. For those who have disowned culture,
they are facing different problems in their lives where some get pregnant
before getting married; some dump children because they are not able to take
care of them. So we need to go back to our own ways of doing things and respect
culture.’

In 2014, the Observer reported, ‘The ceremony, which also marks the fresh fruits
of the season, has a spiritual power that is largely lost on outsiders, and
indeed many of its inner workings remain shrouded in secrecy.’

In 2011the Southern Africa Report and Africa is a
Country website, reported the eyewitness testimony of Incwala. Africa is a Country said, ‘The ceremony is cloaked in secrecy and marks the
king’s return to public life after a period of withdrawal and spiritual
contemplation.

‘Among its highlights is
a symbolic demonstration by the King of his power and dominance in a process
involving his penetration of a black bull, beaten into semi-conscious
immobility to ensure its compliant acceptance of the royal touch. The royal
semen is then collected by a courtier and stored, for subsequent inclusion in
food to be served at Sibaya – traditional councils – and other national
forums.’

Wednesday, 30 December 2015

A court has confirmed that King Mswati III of Swaziland cannot sell or dispose of his private jet until a dispute over his alleged failure to pay a US$3.5 million debt is resolved.

The ruling was made in the British Virgin Islands on 23 December 2015after the East Caribbean High Court was told that there might be plans to lease the plane and then lease a second plane for King Mswati’s use.

There has been a long-running dispute between Shanmuga Rethenam, who owns a company called SG Air, and the King.

Rethenam, popularly known as Shan, succeeded in getting a freezing order from the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) in September 2015.

SG Air claims that King Mswati owes it the money for repairs and modifications undertaken to his private McDonnell Douglas DC-9-87 aircraft in 2012. The case was heard in the Superior Court in Ontario, Canada, in June 2015, when the King won on a legal technicality.

However, pending possible appeals, King Mswati, through a company he owns called Inchatsavane, was forced to lodge a letter of credit for US$3.5 million with Canadian lawyers, in case he lost the appeal. The money was due to be released on 15 September 2015.

Since the Canadian court case, the Swazi Government announced it intended to try to lease out the aircraft, valued at about US$14.5 million, and in turn lease the King a larger, more luxurious jet, with the possibility of buying it at a later date.

The BVI Commercial Court was told the DC-9-87 was flown from Swaziland to South Africa and back again since September 2015. There was a dispute that this might violate the freezing order. The plane is presently at Matsapha Airport in Swaziland.

The freezing order means the King cannot dispose of the aircraft or its engines until the court case over the alleged debt is resolved.

The court order was made in the BVI because that is where SG Air is incorporated.

The judgment of the BVI Commercial Court, delivered by Judge Gerald St. C. Farara, was that the freezing order on the aircraft’s movement should continue pending the outcome of the financial dispute.

Monday, 14 December 2015

In September [2015],
there were high hopes in some parts of Swaziland’s civil society and democratic
movement that a dialogue with the county’s absolute monarch King Mswati III was
on the table. Not least because of pressure from the Commonwealth, the USA and
the EU. Three months later no such meeting has taken place and that hope seems
all but shattered, writes Kenworthy News Media.

The meeting was to have
taken place between king Mswati III, who has ruled Swaziland almost
single-handedly for 30 years, and the so-called G15 group, made up of
representatives from Swaziland’s civil society, trade unions and political
parties SWADEPA, PUDEMO, Sibahle Sinje and the NNLC.

Room for improvement
Former President of Malawi Bakili Muluzi was to have brokered the dialogue, as
he had both held meetings with Swaziland’s civil society groups and allegedly
formed a personal relationship with the king.Muluzi had been appointed
Special Envoy to Swaziland last year by the Commonwealth due to his heading of
a Commonwealth team that had monitored the 2013 Swazi elections.

Here his observer team
had concluded that the elections were not credible and that there was “considerable
room for improving the democratic system”, and that “legislation [should] be
put in place to allow for political parties” who are presently not allowed to
take part in elections in Swaziland.

Talks, dialogue or royal lecture?
Negotiations with Mswati were always going to be difficult, as he is an
absolute monarch. Any Swazi meeting him is literally on his or her knees when
having an audience with him. He or she is only meant to listen, not question
what the king says.

On top of this, everyone
seems to have a different perception of what the dialogue between the king and
Swaziland’s civil society and political parties encompassed.

The EU seemed to believe
that there was to be a dialogue about democracy between the king and civil
society and Swaziland’s political parties, and subsequently attempted to help
capacitate the G15.

The Americans believed
that it was too early to discuss such matters and saw it as merely an
icebreaker where the king was to meet with a G15 that was made up of
representatives of civil society, not political parties.

And PUDEMO President
Mario Masuku says he also saw the prospect of a meeting as merely an
icebreaker, as this was what he had been told by Muluzi, as did the NNLC.

Level the playing field
PUDEMO, who say that they have been prepared to talk with the king and the
Swazi government for decades, made several demands for a meeting to take place
to level the playing field if there were to be meaningful discussions about the
democratisation of Swaziland. They communicated these demands in the press
amongst other things to quell rumours that they were “selling out”.

Amongst the demands was
that all political parties must be unbanned, multiparty elections must be held,
a new constitution must be implemented and the 1973 proclamation, where the
king’s father assumed supreme power for the monarchy, must be annulled.

Several princes,
governors and court presidents have expressed shock at the fact that PUDEMO
dared make any demands to meeting the king at all, as “no Swazi could ever set
conditions for meeting the king”, as one traditionalist put it.

This coupled with the
fact that the meeting has still not taken place would seem to indicate that the
king was never really intent on having a meeting with Swaziland’s civil society
and political parties that might actually have produced any meaningful changes.

King must lead
Looking at a draft presentation, prepared for the meeting by one of the members
of the G15, one cannot really blame him.

Amongst other things the
document starts by thanking the king for his “willingness and openness in
leading the nation”, acknowledges his concern “with the development of the
country and of its people”, and commends him on his leadership and vision for
matters such as the “desire to attain first world status” by 2022.

And even though the
document requests the king to “engage in a process of national political
discussion on our system of governance towards opening up of political space
and the establishment of a system that also enables citizens to have the choice
of participating through their chosen political parties during elections by the
next elections in 2018” through a “genuine national and inclusive process of
political dialogue and negotiation”, such a “change process”, it is stated,
must “be led by the king”.

No real pressure
So what does the future hold for the G15-talks that are on the one hand muddled
by strategic disagreements on whether to suck up to the king or make demands,
and on the other hand seemingly breaking up?

Sibahle Sinje pulled out
of the G15 team in November and rumours have it that others might follow, and
an advisor to the king, Prince Masitsela, has stated publically that any
chances of a meeting between the G15 and the king are now slim.

But an absolute monarch
such as Mswati was never going to accept any challenge to his power as long as
there is no real pressure on him, and for the moment there isn’t really any
such pressure inside Swaziland.

And this is regardless of
the fact that the USA have recently annulled the AGOA free trade agreement with
Swaziland and the EU look set to exclude Swaziland from the EU duty free
markets, and that this, combined with the loss in revenue from the Southern
African Customs Union, could lead to a collapse in Swaziland’s economy.

Bridging the gap
Some members of the G15 still believe that enough pressure can be put on Mswati
by the population as well as the G15 organisations to force him to the
negotiating table, however. The goal is democracy, but also to ensure that the
lower-middle-income country that is Swaziland will provide basic services for
the two thirds of the population who survive on less than a dollar a day.

“Through initiating
dialogue we seek to bridge a gap between the oppressed and the oppressor. An
all-embracing open and democratic Swaziland is being built daily by true Swazi
patriots who join hands in putting pressure on Mswati to listen. It is dialogue
time your majesty, today”, says Wandile Dludlu, who represents the Swaziland
United Democratic Front in the G15.

Thursday, 10 December 2015

The
unelected government in Swaziland is being blamed for a pending humanitarian
crisis in the kingdom where at least one in six of the entire population are
predicted to be without food by March 2016.

The
Deputy Prime Minister Paul Dlamini was reported by one local newspaper saying
200,000 people would be ‘starving’ by then.

That amounts to about one sixth of the 1.2 million population
of Swaziland.

A different newspaper reported Dlamini giving a
higher figure of ‘about 300,000 people’ in need of food aid by April 2016.

Swaziland
is ruled by King Mswati III as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch. Political
parties cannot contest elections and the King chooses the Prime Minister and
Cabinet ministers.

Media
in Swaziland reported that members of the Swaziland House of Assembly gave
the Deputy Prime Minister 24 hours to report on where he would find money to tackle
the crisis.

The
Times of Swaziland, the only
independent daily newspaper in the kingdom, reported
on Thursday (10 December 2015) that the ultimatum came after the Swazi
Government ‘confirmed
that it does not have a budget to feed the thousands of people affected by the
drought brought about by El Nino’.

The Swazi
Observer, a newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati, reported Dlamini
saying the figure requiring food aid would rise to 200,000 by March 2015. The Observer added, ‘Dlamini stated that
statistics had revealed that next year 200,000 people would be starving.’

The Times reported, ‘Dlamini said their
predictions showed that by March and April, about ‘300,000 people would be in
need of food aid’.

The Observer reported, ‘The deputy prime minister
stated that unfortunately government would not be able to help the affected
people due to financial constraints.’

Tuesday, 8 December 2015

A survey in Swaziland
suggested four in 10 women believe that a husband is justified in beating his
wife because he is the head of the household.

This is not the first
time that so-called ‘Swazi culture’ has been investigated.

The APA news agency said
a demographic health survey called the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey
Comparative Report gave a number reasons for wife-beating which included; ‘if
she refused to have sex with him, if she argued with him, if she went out
without telling him, if she neglected the children and if she had sex with
other men’.

APA reported, ‘Silindelo
Nkosi, the Communication and Advocacy Officer for Swaziland Action Group
Against Abuse (SWAGAA) said, “These beliefs of justifying abuse have increased
to the worst rate resulting in more young women dying in the hands of their
lovers or husbands.”’

It added, ‘Clinical Psychologist
Ndo Mdlalose describes this as an abusive mentality where men also tend to
claim they are correcting their women by beating them.’

The report told us
nothing new about Swazi culture and its abuse of women and girls.

The world famous medical
journal, the Lancet in 2009 reported that one in three
girls in Swaziland had experienced sexual violence by the age of 18,
according to a study.

The most common
perpetrators of the first incident of sexual violence were men or boys from the
girl’s neighbourhood or boyfriends or husbands. Over a quarter of all incidents
of sexual violence occurred in the respondent’s own home, with a fifth
occurring at the home of a friend, relative or neighbour.

In June 2008 it was reported that the National Democratic and
Health Survey found that 40 percent of men in Swaziland said it is all right to
beat women. The same year, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) found that the status of
some women in Swaziland is so low that they are practically starved at meal
times, because men folk eat first and if there is not enough food
for everyone, the women must go without.

Women, who under
traditional Swazi law are treated as children and are in effect owned by their
husbands or fathers, were expected to live lives devoted to their men and
families. A report on the State of the Population in Swaziland said that Swazi
women were responsible for childbirth, raising the children and taking care of
the entire family.

Women are expected to
give their husbands sex on demand and those who refuse have been blamed for men
who rape children.

Wednesday, 2 December 2015

News that spread internationally that in Swaziland only King
Mswati III should be afforded the honour of a red carpet at special events
reminds us of another time the King wanted to assert his superiority over his subjects.

That time, according to a cable from the US Embassy in
Swaziland, the King made his advisors sweat in 40-degree heat in a basement to
demonstrate his power over them.

The issue of the red carpet emerged when it was reported that
the red
carpet at the Business Woman of the Year Awards ceremony this year (2015) was
rolled away. The same happened at the Swaziland Inter Municipal Games
Association (SIGA). The Times of
Swaziland, the only independent newspaper in the kingdom, reported that the Swazi Police had ordered SIGA to remove the
red carpet. Barnabas Dlamini, the Swazi Prime Minister, was at the event to
give a speech.

Later,
the Swazi Observer, a newspaper in
effect owned by King Mswati, reported the Swazi Police
spokesperson
Superintendent Khulani Mamba saying no police action was ordered. However, he
said the red carpet might have been removed as is might be, ‘misconstrued in
other quarters as equating himself to the Head of State [King]’.

He added, ‘A well-intended gesture may have unintended consequences and be read
totally out of context.’

The Observer reported Mamba saying, ‘[N]o
specific individual instructed the cops to remove the red carpet but was
feeling of those who were waiting to welcome him that such good gesture may be
lost in interpretation, hence the decision to remove it.

“The Prime Minister had not ordered it, nor ordered its removal, but given his
stature it was felt that such a gesture may be seen as setting him up against
authorities.’

It is not surprising that the Prime Minister or any
other of the King’s subjects would not want to upset him.

The
US Embassy said King Mswati III was ‘not intellectually well developed’ and ‘is
not a reader’. It also called him ‘imbalanced’.

The
comments about the Swazi King came from Earl Irvine, the then US Ambassador to
Swaziland, in February 2010.

In
a confidential cable to Washington released by Wikileaks, Irvine said King
Mswati had a ‘lack of wisdom’.

Quoting
an informant, Irvine wrote the king was ‘not a reader, and will not review
documents left for him’.[The informant]
called the king ‘not intellectually well-developed,’ and contrasted the current
sovereign’s scant educational background with Sobhuza II, who was educated at
Lovedale College in South Africa alongside future leaders of South Africa’s
African National Congress (ANC).

‘Essentially
a bastard outsider to the royal family, King Mswati III was plucked from
relative obscurity when members of the royal family could not come to an
agreement on a successor to King Sobhuza II,’ the cable said.

‘After
Mswati III was selected to be the next king, a posthumous marriage of Sobhuza
II to Ntombi [the Queen Mother] was quickly arranged, according to our
interlocutor.’

Irvine
wrote, ‘Unlike in his early years, the King now identifies and pushes specific
projects, and will look to replace ministers or employees who are unable to
provide progress on those projects.’

Irvine
quoted his informant calling King Mswati ‘imbalanced’. He gave an anecdote to
illustrate this.‘The King, [the
informant] said, invited about forty officials and advisors to a basement in
one of his palaces, where they all sat on the floor to attend to him.King Mswati III turned up the heater, which
warmed the floor first, until the temperature in the room reached about 40
degrees Celsius, and told inconsequential stories to those gathered while they
sweated, merely to show them he was in power.’